If someone told you to read the Psalms, others have gone there first. One person wrote on Reddit's r/Christianity, "I found them not only comforting but also sort of permission to panic before God as David did." The same Reddit comment goes on, "This helped me so much by organizing my raw emotions into words." Another Reddit user there gave a different reason: "It’s not because it provides encouraging words, but it’s full of lamentations and cries of help from david".
These three whole prayers each hold a passage Bible Nudge offers:
- Afraid of something you can name: Psalm 56.
- Awake in the night: Psalm 63.
- Worn down to nothing: Psalm 143.
If you only have a minute
Afraid
Psalm 56:3, then verse 8.
Awake
Psalm 63:6-8, slowly.
Worn out
Psalm 143:4, then verse 8.
Thinking about dying
Reach a person first; routes are below.
Psalm 56, when you can name the fear
Its heading places it when the Philistines seized David in Gath; 1 Samuel 21:10-15 tells how, afraid of the king of Gath, he pretended to be mad, as is it a sin to be afraid describes.
Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me. My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me.
Then Psalm 56:3-4, the passage offered here for fear:
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life. Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God. You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book? Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me. In God, I will praise his word. In Yahweh, I will praise his word. I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
The psalm closes in thanks. "Afraid" in verse 3 is yare, "to fear," in the Bible Hub lexicon. Verses 10 and 11 repeat verses 3 and 4, with verse 8 between them. Rashi, the Jewish commentator, reads it as asking that the tears "be preserved before You"; Matthew Henry, from the Reformed tradition, says God observes them "with compassion and tender concern." It gives you words for being afraid, said twice, with the tears counted in between. Say verse 3 aloud, then verse 8, and stay with its question: "What are you afraid of right now, if you say it plainly?" Fear of the future reads verses 3 and 4 closely.
Psalm 63, for the hours awake
The heading sets David in the desert of Judah; Enduring Word notes commentators who connect it with Absalom's rebellion.
God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
The sentence runs on into Psalm 63:6-7, offered here for nights awake:
when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.
My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.
Verses 9 to 11 turn on his enemies and end with the king rejoicing. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours opens Sunday morning prayer with it in the first week, so it gives you company in the night watches in a psalm the church also prays at first light. Read verses 6 to 8 once, slowly, and stay with the question: "What could you turn over in the hours you are awake?" Sleepless nights reads it for the middle of the night, nightmares for the moment of waking.
Psalm 143, when you are worn down to nothing
The US Catholic bishops' Bible calls it "One of the Church’s seven Penitential Psalms" and "a prayer to be freed from death-dealing enemies."
Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me. Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
Then Psalm 143:3-4, offered here for emotional exhaustion:
For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead. Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands. I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah. Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit. Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
"Overwhelmed" in verse 4 is ataph, which the Bible Hub lexicon gives as "to shroud"; "fails" in verse 7 is kalah, "to be complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, or spent." It gives you exact words for being worn out, from somebody still asking for the morning. Read verse 4, then verse 8, and stay with the question: "What has been taking everything you have?" Mental exhaustion reads verses 3 and 4 closely.
Verse 7 asks not to become "like those who go down into the pit," and the psalm keeps those words. If you are thinking about dying, reach a person tonight: 988 in the United States, 9-8-8 in Canada, Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia, or Find A Helpline anywhere else.
From complaint to trust
All three move from complaint toward trust, read in different ways. Walter Brueggemann's The Message of the Psalms (1984) sorts psalms into orientation, disorientation and new orientation; as Fergus Macdonald quotes him, disorientation is "the loss of control of our lives." Athanasius, the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria, wrote in his Letter to Marcellinus that the psalms "become like a mirror" for the singer, and counts Psalm 56 (his 55) among those sung "as being the one who suffers." Notice where complaint and trust sit, often a verse apart; that helps on a bad night.
The lines about enemies
One person posted on Reddit's r/Christianity that "some are hard to relate to because the writer talks about everyone hating him, being in constant anguish and how hard his life is." On Reddit's r/OpenChristian, another wrote, "Though I often skip over the bits about enemies because that's not usually the form my anxieties take." The lines are "They conspire and lurk, watching my steps" (56:6), "They shall be jackal food" (63:10), and "cut off my enemies" (143:12). Some pray around them and some find a real person in them; praying as the one who suffers, as Athanasius did, leaves room for both.
Aloud, together and at set hours
The Rule of Saint Benedict sets Psalm 63 at Sunday morning prayer and Psalm 143 at Saturday's (its 62 and 142). Orthodox Matins opens with the Six Psalms, 63 and 143 among them. Rabbi Berel Wein writes of reciting Tehillim, the Psalms, "at times of danger and duress." Emily Brink writes that metrical psalm singing "was at the heart of the communal prayer of God's people" in Reformed and Presbyterian churches.
A Reddit user in r/Christianity wrote, "I find them most effective when read aloud." In the King James wording, Psalm 56:3 is "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee," and Psalm 63:6-7 is:
When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
Other psalms people send
Each has a page here: Psalm 23 on anxiety and overthinking, Psalm 46 on stress, Psalm 55:22 and Psalm 121 on panic attacks, Psalm 91 on nightmares, Psalm 94:19 on what the Bible says about anxiety, and Psalm 131 on overwhelmed moms.
Questions people ask
Is it anxiety or fear? The American Psychological Association calls anxiety "a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat," and fear "an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat." Psalm 56 may fit one night, Psalm 143 another.
What if it will not lift? Mind, a UK charity, says anxiety may be a problem if you "Feel anxious a lot, or for months at a time." Then, or when low mood stays, see a family doctor, called a GP in the UK. What the Bible says about anxiety asks whether anxiety is a sin.
Where to go next
If you are thinking about dying, call or text 988 in the United States or 9-8-8 in Canada; call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland or Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia; anywhere else, Find A Helpline.
Whichever psalm fits tonight, read it whole and aloud. For anything else, Bible Nudge can take a line in your own words and return one passage with the verses around it. Find a passage.
Words that come up here
Tap a term to see what it means.
Yahweh. The personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible.